OVERVIEW: The 115mm High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) round is a shaped-charge munition designed for use with the 2A20 smoothbore gun on the T-62 main battle tank. It is intended to defeat armored targets by focusing explosive energy into a narrow jet capable of penetrating rolled homogeneous and early composite armor.

DETAILS: The 115mm HEAT round employs a conical shaped charge with a metal liner, detonated on impact to produce a high-velocity jet that penetrates armor independently of range. It is fin-stabilized for in-flight stability and typically uses a piezoelectric or point-initiated base-detonated fuze. The warhead can penetrate between 350 mm and 450 mm of rolled homogeneous armor, depending on the variant. Unlike kinetic penetrators, HEAT performance does not degrade with distance, making it effective even at longer ranges. Although originally designed to counter Western MBTs of the 1960s and 1970s, its effectiveness is significantly reduced against modern reactive and composite armor.

ROLE SUMMARY:
Category: Tank Gun Ammunition
Primary Use: Anti-armor
Function: Armor penetration via shaped-charge jet
Strong Against: Armored vehicles without ERA, fortified positions, bunkers
Weak Against: Explosive reactive armor (ERA), active protection systems (APS), spaced armor
Platform: T-62 main battle tank (115mm 2A20 smoothbore gun)
Integration: Standard anti-armor ammunition for 115mm gun; not compatible with 120mm or 125mm systems

SOURCE:
Janes Ammunition Handbook ; Russian Ministry of Defence ; U.S. Army Foreign Materiel Exploitation Reports ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/115_mm_tank_gun